The reborn Isobu stood before Liuyu, as steady as a mountain.
Its powerful frame resembled an iron tower, its three-meter-tall body covered in pale, streamlined bone armor.
A massive, turtle-shell-like carapace rested on its back, its surface studded with vicious coral-like protrusions.
A Hollow mask covered half its face, branching outward like coral and leaving the hard lines of its lower jaw exposed.
In its right hand, it held an enormous coral bone hammer nearly two meters long, its head covered in sharp bone spikes.
A heavy, ancient aura spread from its body, intertwining the savagery of a tailed beast with the despair of a Hollow.
Liuyu studied it, a flicker of satisfaction crossing his eyes.
"Go outside," he said flatly. "Test your blade."
Isobu's kneeling form vanished in an instant.
It was not the Body Flicker Technique, but an explosion of pure strength-the metal floor beneath its feet collapsed into a deep crater with a thunderous crash.
Its figure had already smashed through the rock above the laboratory, pierced hundreds of meters of crust, and emerged in the sky over Kirigakure!
Escorted to the surface under Tier Harribel's guard, Mei Terumi looked up.
All she saw was a white meteor streaking across the night sky, plummeting toward the center of Kirigakure.
Then the slaughter began.
Kirigakure's central square.
Dozens of hard-line ninja were gathering there. They were Yagura's former subordinates.
They refused to recognize Mei Terumi's legitimacy, much less accept the rule of Las Noches.
Their leader was an elite Jonin with a face covered in scars, currently roaring at his subordinates.
"Lord Yagura must still be alive! That woman Mei Terumi colluded with outsiders! We have to-"
He never finished.
The ground beneath his feet suddenly exploded!
An enormous arm covered in bone armor burst from the